I have avoided watching this movie (or seeing the play upon which it is based) because I expected that it would be sort of low-quality and very "preachy." But, somehow I ended up with a VHS copy and fortunately in working my way through my VHS shelf, I got to it and threw it in the VCR for a look.

To my surprise, the film is actually pretty good. The number of strong actors in the cast helps a lot. I expected the storyline to feel mechanical but (although it is not wildly original and doesn't veer too far from where you'd expect) it actually is a step or two better than the the normal family-in-crisis-TV-movie. The actions and reactions of the characters feel reasonably realistic and not simply designed to create drama or lay out a series of points of view. And the author seems to assume that his audience has some intelligence, making his points without having any characters stand in front of a camera and "speechify." There are a couple of sort of annoying gay clichés that I would have loved to edit out, but nothing too wildly stupid.

And, of course, the underlying questions raised in the film about the coming problem of genetic engineering are both interesting and scary (and are related to any number of human characteristics beyond sexual orientation.) All-in-all, not a movie to set the world on fire, but a pretty solid and reasonably engaging piece of entertainment.

Suzanne Stein (Jennifer Beals) is pregnant but discovers her unborn baby might have a genetic predisposition to be gay. She already has a gay brother (Brendan Fraser) who she loves--but can she have a gay child? Husband Rob (Jon Tenney) and parents Walter and Phyllis (Garry Marshall and Faye Dunaway) are all giving her their feelings and thoughts and driving her crazy.

The initial idea is just silly. The kid MIGHT be gay...but she actually considers aborting it???? I don't think any mother would even think about aborting a child because of that. Also this was overdone and full of obvious characters and speeches. Dunaway and Marshall were not born to play Jewish parents (especially Dunaway),Fraser goes WAY over the top in his role and people spend about 90% of the movie screaming at each other. Also the ending of the play this was based on was changed to provide a nice big happy ending (that I didn't believe for one second). Still it did make me think and wonder...what if my mom knew I was going to be gay. Would she have aborted me? There is some great acting by Beals, Sean O'Bryan (as Fraser's lover),Rosie O'Donnell and especially Tenney--his shower sequence was both exciting (this man is perfect looking with a great body) and shocking (when he reveals his true feelings about his unborn child). So, even though the idea is just silly, it did make me think.

I attended opening night of the play on Broadway in October 1993, and there was one moment late in the show when the entire audience gasped.

In the (flawed-but-still-excellent) play, Suzanne and Rob decide that she should abort their likely gay son and have another try at having a "normal" child. The gasp came with the news that there was a complication in the operating room and Suzanne can no longer have children.

This obviously opens up the whole question of which would be better: raising a gay child, or having no children at all?

But in this wildly-uneven film adaptation, Suzanne has the baby, gay brother David is reconciled with the Gold family (along with his partner, Steven),and Rob leaves Suzanne, although it is mentioned in the all-too-rosy epilogue that he becomes a devoted weekend dad.

In the play, Suzanne and Rob remain together, but childless, and David breaks his tenuous ties with his family. Hence: "The Twilight of the Golds."

The basic core thought - that of the far-reaching implications of pre-natal genetic testing - remains in the film, but all the misguided added material to "open-up" a stage-play for the screen (especially the whole opera subplot) really drags it down.

The acting is generally very good, with a surprisingly multi-layered performance from Jennifer Beals (who is doomed to be forever remembered only for "Flashdance"). Brendon Frasier (David),Jon Tenney (Rob),and Sean O'Bryan (Steven) are excellent. The two sets of annoyingly-stereotypical Jewish parents also shift the tone of the story and there were some poor choices in casting here.

I am amazed that playwright Jonathan Tolins (credited as co-writer of the screenplay and co-producer) permitted the outcome of his play to be so altered that I can only wonder if Showtime demanded the ridiculous "happy end" which basically erases the entire point of his play, so much that it makes even its title irrelevant.